Star Wars: KotOR II Interview, Part One

Obsidian's Chris Avellone, lead designer of Star Wars: KotOR II, talks with Winterwind Productions about the upcoming RPG sequel and his past development experiences at Black Isle Studios. An excerpt:
WW: You worked on two games in a row at Interplay (Jefferson and Van Buren) that were shelved, both of which were eagerly anticipated by BIS fans. How did that effect your view of the industry and you personally?

MCA: Well, Jefferson was a splash of cold water followed by a slow, unsettling chill that it all could happen again. I think it was a combination of that and Feargus leaving that finally made me realize I couldn't stay at Interplay any longer a lot of work was invested in Jefferson, I think it was a good, solid hardcore PC RPG, and I had a lot of hopes for it. To have it suddenly shelved by circumstances beyond your control is something you can expect to happen in the industry, but that had been happening a LOT at Interplay, and it's frustrating to work hard on something and then watch it all get flushed I mean, that's almost a year and a half of your life, with nothing to show for it. The artists were probably hit the worst - some of the art that was done for that game was amazing. I don't really know how Sawyer stayed sane through all of it, but that man has a spine of steel.

Anyway, to sum it up, projects getting cancelled just happens, but the reasons that projects were getting cancelled at Interplay never felt like good reasons.